The rare earth supply chain just moved a step closer to Western self-sufficiency. In a landmark deal, Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX: ASM) will be acquired by Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU | TSX: EFR), creating what ASM CEO Rowena Smith calls a “rare earth mine all the way through to alloy champion.” The transaction, valued at approximately A$447 million, brings together ASM’s metallisation and alloying capabilities with Energy Fuels’ rare earth separation and uranium production infrastructure, offering vertically integrated production across Australia, Korea, and the United States.The deal, valued at approximately A$447 million, would see Energy Fuels acquire 100% of ASM, including its flagship Dubbo Project and its Korean metals plant. As outlined in the January 21st announcement, ASM shareholders are set to receive an implied value of A$1.60 per share, a 121% premium to ASM’s last closing price. "It was really important for our shareholders that there was an opportunity for ASM shareholders to participate in the value that we were creating," Smith emphasized during her interview with Tracy Hughes, host at InvestorNews.com.The implications of the deal reach far beyond shareholder value. Smith underscored the strategic synergy between the two companies, particularly the vertical integration of their capabilities. "This is also about acquiring the metallisation and alloying capability that we’ve established," she noted. That capability, developed in ASM’s Korean facility, includes advanced metallisation for heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium, as well as rare earth alloy strip casting.For Energy Fuels, the acquisition offers a fast track into downstream value creation. "Energy Fuels are making a 100% acquisition of ASM and all our subsidiaries. That includes our Korean metals plant...and our dedicated technology team," said Smith. The Dubbo Project, long considered a cornerstone of Australia's critical minerals potential, becomes a crucial asset. "We’ve got a polymetallic orebody... with light rare earths, heavy rare earths, and a number of other critical minerals including zirconium, hafnium and niobium," she explained.Beyond the operational synergies, there is a clear geopolitical dimension. With Australia and the U.S. aligning policies through the Critical Minerals Framework, the combined entity stands to benefit. "We know that this combination of assets... is really in the sweet spot for what that policy is aiming to enable," said Smith, noting ongoing conversations with both governments and detailed due diligence underway in Utah for a potential U.S. metals plant.As for the collaboration itself, it was no overnight decision. "In truth, I probably went ‘aha’ before Mark did," Smith laughed, referring to Energy Fuels CEO Mark Chalmers. "The industry has shifted in the last 12 months to being much more open to working in partnership."The integration is expected to proceed over the coming months, with government approvals, including Australia’s FIRB process, and a shareholder vote targeted for mid-2026. "I’m very committed to making sure the transition is successful for both businesses and for the teams," said Smith, who will lead the transition. "We can see how well these two teams are going to work together."And what happens after the vote? For now, the focus is on integration and execution. "One of the pieces we’ll be looking at is how to integrate those teams together to have an integrated office for Energy Fuels in Perth," she added. As for the industry response: "We really are going to create a near-term Western 'mine all the way through to alloy' rare earth champion. We’re going to be leveraging the established capability we have collectively across all steps of that supply chain."That supply chain may soon span continents, governments, and technologies—but it began with a simple idea: cooperation with purpose.

Scandium Canada’s steady rise in the critical minerals landscape illustrates how a once-obscure metal could become essential to advanced manufacturing and stronger, more resilient supply chains. In a discussion with InvestorNews.com host and Hallgarten + Company Analyst Christopher Ecclestone, Guy Bourassa, CEO and Director of Scandium Canada Ltd. (TSXV: SCD) explained why scandium—still unfamiliar to most beyond specialist sectors—warrants broader attention for its role in creating lighter, stronger aluminum alloys with meaningful promise in aerospace and other high-performance industries.Bourassa explained that the company’s Crater Lake project in northeastern Québec represents not just another deposit, but “the only primary source of scandium currently being worked around the world,” a distinction that matters to end users who want reliable future supply rather than by-product scraps from nickel or titanium mines. He underscored the momentum behind infrastructure and study milestones, noting that the market’s interest “reflected well” on the company as it moves toward key development phases.One of the centrepieces of their discussion was logistics and community partnership. Bourassa described how Scandium Canada recently secured an agreement with the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach that involves building a permanent access road from Schefferville to the project site—a move that “completely changed the logistics of the project” and, he hopes, could be funded through federal support. This, he said, would dramatically reduce capital requirements and enable a hydrometallurgical plant to be located closer to the mine, decreasing transport costs and environmental footprint.When pressed on government support beyond federal grants, Bourassa highlighted active discussions with provincial stakeholders and entities such as Québec’s northern development initiatives, aligning with broader plans to open up the Labrador Trough region for responsible resource development. This regional support aligns with Scandium Canada’s technical progress, including milestones highlighted in its 2025 annual review—such as the updated mineral resource estimate for the TG Zone and the successful completion of a 500-kilogram metallurgical pilot test that advances process validation and reduces technical risk.Scandium’s broader market context also came into focus. Bourassa addressed narratives about supply commitments, arguing that recent agreements for Canada to build a scandium stockpile on behalf of G7 allies—including arrangements to purchase material from Rio Tinto—reflect strategic positioning rather than market restriction. He noted that this stockpile could help support Scandium Canada’s own alloy development efforts by ensuring material availability for pre-commercial testing. This resonates with the company’s efforts to develop its own aluminum-scandium alloys, particularly 5000 and 7000 series formulations, which Bourassa described as breakthroughs in avoiding micro-cracks during advanced manufacturing—a key hurdle for aerospace and structurally demanding applications.On the topic of these alloys, Bourassa said the company has engaged with major players in metals and manufacturing who reached out after reading about Scandium Canada’s technical results, indicating significant interest if the alloys perform as described. This interest dovetails with the company’s recent moves to establish a dedicated Scandium+ division focused on advancing research and development of aluminum-scandium powders for additive manufacturing and identifying high-value markets such as aerospace, automotive, and 3D printing.Throughout the interview, Bourassa emphasized the technical and logistical groundwork driving Scandium Canada’s progress — from federal and provincial support to collaboration with the Naskapi Nation and the path to a mid-2026 pre-feasibility study.

In a world where even tiny amounts of rare materials can power major technologies, even the most ordinary rock can become strategically important.That is the wager Marcy Kiesman is making — not in a policy paper or a Silicon Valley pitch deck, but in the plainspoken cadence of a mining executive who still talks like someone who remembers what it’s like to carry a hammer into the woods. In a recent InvestorNews.com interview with host Darren Cudmore, Kiesman, the CEO and a director of Quantum Critical Metals Corp. (TSXV: LEAP | OTCQB: ATOXF | FSE: 86A1), positioned her company as a kind of junction box for the age of electrification and machine intelligence: a Canadian explorer trying to advance a portfolio that includes Québec’s NMX East Gallium‑Rubidium‑Cesium project, the Discovery Gallium‑Rubidium‑Cesium polymetallic project in Québec, British Columbia’s Victory Antimony project, and the newly acquired Prophecy Germanium‑Gallium‑Zinc project, among others — the sort of ingredient list that reads like a graduate seminar but is increasingly being treated like industrial policy.Kiesman’s origin story is less “boardroom” than “bushwhack.” “I actually come from a finance background,” she told Cudmore, before describing a childhood in Prince Rupert spent pilfering her father’s carpentry hammer to “go and bang mica off rocks in the bush because mica was so pretty and fun to play with.” Then the line that made the past snap into the present: “Which is kind of ironic how now I’m still playing with mica a good 50 years later.”The company, too, has been recast for its moment. For years it was known as Durango Resources — a name that evokes prospectors, not processors — until the rebrand to Quantum Critical Metals, a change that became effective in March 2025 and came with a new ticker: LEAP. In the interview, Kiesman described the rename as both logistical grind and strategic gamble. It took time, she said, because “we didn’t really know what we wanted to change the name to,” and because “critical metals weren’t as popular a year ago as they are today.” The word “leap” wasn’t just marketing; she said it was a nod to the early-’90s TV show Quantum Leap and to a posture she wants the company to embody — “future forward-looking things” in an industry that often moves like it’s still paging through the last cycle’s playbook.The heresy she keeps returning to is mica — not as waste, but as host. “We’re… finding mica, using it as an ore mineral rather than just a gangue mineral,” she said, framing the company’s work as a search not merely for a deposit, but for an extractable pathway. She spoke about “finding new ways of extracting gallium,” arguing that “gallium having mica as its host is also a new thing that no one’s really paid attention to before.”Cudmore, playing the role of curious every-investor, admitted what many listeners were likely thinking: “I can barely spell rubidium or gallium… let alone know anything about it.” Kiesman didn’t try to shame the question; she leaned into it. “You are not alone in this,” she said, describing investors who “have no idea what all this stuff is,” and the reflex to measure everything against the familiar talismans of the sector. But she also offered a sharper provocation: “I put them on a sliding scale with gold… I think a lot of people would have their jaws hit the floor because they don’t realize the cost of these things.” And then, the reminder that the real bottleneck is not always the rock: “The trick with most of the critical minerals is processing and trying to figure out how to extract everything out and get it into a useful format.”

From the outset of the interview, it was clear this was no ordinary conversation with a junior mining CEO, but a moment staged by Christopher Ecclestone — Principal and mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company in London and host of InvestorNews.com interviews — to spotlight a project that might just redefine a historic gold district. Mike England, CEO and Director of Rockland Resources Ltd. (CSE: RKL | OTCQB: BERLF), didn’t mince words about the mood in the market: “I’m so excited. Yes, it’s so nice to have a market back now. And with Rockland, the right time. Right people, right place, right time,” he said, capturing the sentiment of a sector emerging from dormancy.England’s excitement wasn’t abstract. The company has secured financing and engagement with Chibougamau Drilling for an imminent ~3,000-metre drill program at its 100 %-owned Cole Gold Mines project in the prolific Red Lake district of Ontario — territory that has produced some of Canada’s richest gold deposits and still attracts major and junior explorers alike. The winter program, slated to begin around January 22–23, will test three of five distinct targets identified through extensive digitization and modern modeling of decades-old data.What drew England to this project wasn’t luck. “This asset came from one of the geologists I work closely with … I showed it to the team … it was unanimous. We should go for it,” he said, noting that Rockland earned its interest via the usual mix of shares, cash, and work expenditures. But timing had been unkind: a soft gold market prompted the company to explore lithium and other ventures before returning full attention to Cole as gold prices regained investor focus.Cole’s story is steeped in history. The ground was held by the Cole family for over a century, featuring underground development in the 1930s with multiple levels — “they never said they produced gold, but they were developing it,” England explained — and only recently resurfaced on the market when the vendor, Greg Smith, picked up the claims in 2019 and began prospecting with modern rigor and insight. Smith retains a 2.5 % NSR but has been instrumental in identifying high-grade veins previously overlooked.Rockland’s own surface work has already yielded compelling results, including grab samples up to 145 grams per tonne gold — roughly 3.5 ounces per ton — on veins outside the old workings, confirming what historic reports hinted at: pervasive gold mineralization with numerous targets amenable to systematic drilling. England emphasized that these aren’t just anecdotal finds. “We have a lot more information now than we ever had back then, even four years ago,” he told Ecclestone, referring to updated datasets that underpin the current drill plan.Despite the rugged terrain — dense forest that may require helicopter support in places — the project’s logistics are well organized, with accessible staging areas and year-round potential for exploration. Crucially, engagement with Shared Spirits, the strategic alliance between Wabauskang First Nation and Lac Seul First Nation that collaborates on resource development in their shared traditional territories, has been positive, England stated, reflecting an important aspect of contemporary mineral exploration in Ontario’s Treaty 3 area. While the winter program is fully funded through a recent private placement, England anticipates a second drilling campaign later in the year, with summer efforts to include enhanced mapping, sampling, and geophysics once the snow melts and conditions allow broader fieldwork. The narrative he and Ecclestone wove is one where history, geology, and market momentum intersect — a story of rediscovery in a district that refuses to relinquish its allure.

The future of critical minerals will not be decided in conference rooms or policy papers, but in jurisdictions where geology, infrastructure, and political reality align—and Namibia is increasingly one of those places.That was the clear message from a recent conversation between Jack Lifton, widely regarded as the world’s leading rare earths expert and Co-Chair of the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), and Christopher Drysdale, Interim CEO and Director of ReeXploration Inc. (TSXV: REE | FSE: K2I0). The Canadian-listed explorer is advancing what Drysdale describes as a “true dual-commodity critical minerals company” at its flagship Eureka Project in central Namibia, pairing rare earth elements and uranium within one of the world’s most established uranium corridors.“At the moment, we have a de-risked rare earth deposit known as the Eureka Rare Earth Deposit, which has a maiden resource on it,” Drysdale said. “And now we have a compelling Rössing-style uranium drill-ready target that we're moving along.” He was careful to distinguish marketing language from geology. “I think that word is sometimes overused, but we're a true dual commodity critical minerals company.”Lifton emphasized that markets often fail to appreciate the strategic value of projects that combine rare earths and uranium—two supply chains now under intense geopolitical scrutiny. In Eureka’s case, those commodities are not only co-located but structurally discrete. The rare earth mineralization sits within the Eureka Dome, while the uranium opportunity lies at the hinge of that structure. “They are totally removed from each other,” Drysdale explained, minimizing the risk of operational or regulatory overlap as development progresses.Jurisdiction remains a central pillar of the story. Namibia, Drysdale noted, is not simply permissive toward uranium mining but deeply experienced. “Namibia is a top-tier jurisdiction not only for mining but specifically in uranium mining,” he said, citing clear regulations, strong infrastructure, and a government that understands the industry. Unlike speculative jurisdictions with no uranium legacy, Namibia has spent decades building the institutional framework required to support large-scale production.Infrastructure further strengthens the project’s positioning. The Eureka Project lies approximately 12 kilometers from the port of Walvis Bay, one of the most active deep-sea ports on Africa’s west coast and already a key export hub for uranium concentrate. “In terms of the location and the jurisdiction, you couldn't ask for a better jurisdiction to have a uranium discovery and a rare earth deposit already in place,” Drysdale said.Timing, too, is becoming decisive. In mid-January, ReeXploration announced that its 2026 uranium drill program at Eureka is fully funded and moving into execution. After a year spent refining targets through geophysics, geochemistry, and fieldwork, the company is preparing to mobilize drills for an initial 2,000-meter program. “We’ve secured funding. We’ve secured the contractors,” Drysdale said. “Over the next couple of weeks, that operation and that exploration program on the drilling of the uranium is going to start.”Operational simplicity is a notable advantage. The targets are road-accessible, drill pads require minimal preparation, and no helicopter support is necessary. “You can drive to our site in a normal sedan and drive up to a drill collar with the sedan and get drilling,” Drysdale noted, underscoring the efficiency with which exploration can proceed.Questions around downstream processing and export remain secondary at this stage, but Drysdale pointed to established precedents nearby. Major operations such as Rössing and Husab export uranium concentrate efficiently into global markets, a pathway Eureka could ultimately follow. At present, much of Namibia’s uranium output flows eastward, particularly to China, reflecting ownership structures and long-term supply agreements.

Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: HPY) may be small in market capitalization, but under its new leader the company is staking its claim at the center of one of the geopolitically charged commodities of our time.Stephen Gray, who only joined the Vancouver-area junior explorer as President and CEO in November, didn’t take the traditional route to the corner office. “I’m a mining engineer by background,” he told InvestorNews host Darren Cudmore, recalling stints on the iron ore frontlines with Rio Tinto in Australia before shifting to M&A work with Kinross Gold and Centerra Gold. “It’s a big change to go from a big company to a small company,” Gray said, “but it’s an exciting opportunity for me to do something more entrepreneurial and spread my wings.”That entrepreneurial spirit could not come at a more opportune moment for Happy Creek. Tungsten, a metal prized for its exceptional hardness and density, has seen a surge in market interest—its price roughly tripling over the last year, and Happy Creek’s share price more than doubling in the same period. “Tungsten is a niche commodity, absolutely, but it’s a very important commodity,” Gray said. Unique industrial uses in drill bits and machine tools, and strategic demand in tank armor and jet engines, have elevated its status to that of a critical mineral, he explained. Yet global supply remains heavily concentrated in China—“about 80% of world tungsten production,” he noted—and there are no operating tungsten mines in North America.Happy Creek’s flagship Fox Tungsten Project in British Columbia positions the company squarely within that supply gap. The deposit—a skarn with a NI 43-101 mineral resource of about a million tonnes at roughly 1% tungsten—stands among the highest grade tungsten projects globally. A modest drill campaign this past summer “was successful in incrementally extending mineralization,” Gray said, with assays confirming continuity of high-grade zones and demonstrating that the deposit remains open along strike and at depth.Those drilling results were backed by Happy Creek’s December 17, 2025 news release, which reported significant intercepts from its 2025 program. Highlights included 1.18 meters grading 6.83% WO₃ from 31.2 meters downhole at the RC zone, along with multiple other strong intercepts that expanded the calc-silicate horizon and confirmed potential for additional horizons beneath Deception Mountain.For Gray and his team, the goal now is scale. “This coming summer, we’re hoping to do a much larger program at Fox, with the goal of maximizing the size of the resource,” he said, pointing to plans not just to extend the mineralization footprint but to update the resource and undertake a preliminary economic assessment. That path, he said, will “start changing the conversation from tons and grade to dollars—and shift the story from an exploration story to a development story.”Financially, Happy Creek is positioned to take the next steps, but not without fresh capital. With roughly $2 million in cash and another $2 million in marketable securities—shares received from the sale of its Highland Valley property to Metal Energy Corp.—Gray said the company has runway for an initial push. “We do have a strong balance sheet,” he noted, but added that to execute an expanded ~$10 million summer program the company is “looking at doing another raise in the spring—likely another $5–$7 million.”Disclaimer: Video interviews and other video content published by InvestorNews are produced as part of paid media services. The issuer or company featured in this video has compensated InvestorNews for the creation and publication of such content. The views expressed in these interviews are those of the interviewees or guests and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of InvestorNews, its writers, or its affiliates. For full details, please refer to our complete disclaimer at www.investornews.com/disclaimer

From the outset of his conversation with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes, Anthony Durkacz pulled no punches: the fight his company has launched against alleged market predators isn’t just another legal footnote—it’s a battle for integrity on Main Street as much as for investors in speculative biotech. “This is a David versus about 13 Goliaths,” Durkacz said, describing Quantum BioPharma Ltd.'s (NASDAQ: QNTM | CSE: QNTM) class action lawsuit seeking USD $700 million in damages against Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Royal Bank of Canada and their broker-dealer subsidiaries over alleged stock spoofing and price manipulation that he argues has grievously harmed everyday investors.Quantum BioPharma, a NASDAQ-listed biotech focused on developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis — most notably its lead compound Lucid-MS — has, Durkacz explained, encountered hurdles that go beyond scientific complexity. The company’s intention “is to try to deliver something that no MS patient has today: the ability to regain mobility or control that has been lost due to the disease,” he told Hughes, pointing to a mission that seeks to tackle one of medicine’s most stubborn challenges.But Durkacz pivoted quickly to what he described as a “game changer” outside the lab: spoofing — “an act of stock manipulation, which is illegal today in Canada and the United States,” designed to create a false impression of market demand or supply. In his telling, large fraudulent asks flooded the order book, disappeared once smaller trades executed, and then mirrored bids would appear — a pattern he believes was intended “to make the market believe that the stock is heading in a certain direction.”For the lay investor, Durkacz said, the practice looks like large banks, brokers or certain clients of theirs placing orders they never intend to fulfill purely to influence sentiment. That’s why Quantum BioPharma, represented by experienced legal teams on a contingency basis, is pushing the lawsuit that covers shareholders dating back to January 6, 2021, through October 15, 2025. “We believe we have very strong evidence,” he said, and noted that the firm sometimes involves world-renowned litigators such as Christian Attar Law and Grant & Eisenhofer, which have recently filed a broader related class action.Durkacz underscored how consequential this effort could be for small-cap companies and their investors. “The people most harmed are everyday investors — mom-and-pop investors — who take the brunt of the losses,” he told Hughes, describing spoofing not as an isolated issue but a “continuing epidemic” that undermines the ability of entrepreneurial enterprises to survive.Yet even amid legal turbulence, Quantum BioPharma is making strides in its core scientific pursuits. Recent corporate updates show the company has completed key 180-day toxicity and toxicokinetic studies for Lucid-MS, milestones intended to support an Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and facilitate a Phase 2 clinical trial in multiple sclerosis patients.Durkacz spoke passionately about the potential human impact of that work, noting animal models in which subjects previously unable to walk regained mobility — dramatic results that underscore the urgency of bringing such therapies to patients. While much of the industry’s attention is on science and regulatory paths, Durkacz sees the company’s legal action as another front in the broader struggle to safeguard small-cap markets. Educating investors, he said, is a crucial part of that effort; information is being made available through Quantum’s own website under a section called “Quantum vs. Banks.”

The markets woke up to a headline that reads like a time-warp: U.S. strikes in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro reportedly captured, and Washington openly debating what it means to “run” a sovereign country—temporarily, of course. Reuters reported regional condemnation within hours, including Brazil warning the United States had crossed “an unacceptable line.” AP, in parallel, described a pre-dawn raid and the administration’s stated intent to seize control of Venezuela’s political transition and oil flows.In an InvestorNews conversation post Trump news conference with InvestorNews host Tracy Hughes, Christopher Ecclestone of Hallgarten + Company didn’t reach for ideology. He reached for history—and for a warning label.“It’s early days yet,” he told me. Anyone assuming “it’s all over by the shooting” is “probably mistaken,” because regime change “has generally resulted in way more complications than whoever has come up with the idea has accounted for.” In his view, Venezuela “almost seems too easy,” and “that is a fatal trap.”Ecclestone’s first frame is not moral, but mechanical: power doesn’t disappear when a leader is removed. “Don’t think you’ve won the war by just taking out one guy,” he said. Maduro, he argues, “was not [a] Stalin-like figure that was all-encompassing.” He was “part of a whole structure,” with “lots of mini Maduros out there” and a vice president “who can potentially step into the role.”That point matters because Washington’s public rationale is already under strain. Trump has leaned heavily on narco-terrorism charges; the legal debate is immediate, loud, and global. Ecclestone was blunt: “The drug argument is definitely feeble.” Compared with Mexico or Colombia, he said, Venezuela “doesn’t even register on the Richter scale.” He went further: calling the legal case fragile enough that Trump “risks actually being laughed out of court” unless the administration can offer something stronger than the claim “the leader of a South American country controls some machine guns.”“So you are right,” and then adds: “It really… it’s all about oil and gas and absolutely nothing to do with drugs.”The oil facts are not subtle. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proved reserves—about 303 billion barrels, per Reuters—yet years of mismanagement, underinvestment, and sanctions have left production far below historic peaks. U.S. companies have still orbited the sector: Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) has operated via licenses and joint ventures with Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), even as U.S. policy tightened and loosened over time. For mining investors, Ecclestone’s memory snaps back to a scar: Crystallex International Corporation (TSX: KRY) (NYSE Amex: KRY) and the Las Cristinas gold saga—an emblem of what happens when geology meets politics. Venezuela expropriated Crystallex’s interest in Las Cristinas; arbitration later awarded damages, and the dispute became a case study in sovereign risk. “Since then,” Ecclestone said, “mining investors have given Venezuela a wide berth.”And yet, the temptation is obvious: the Guayana Shield. Ecclestone notes that Guyana has become “one of the hot spots of gold,” and Venezuela controls part of the same ancient geological province. “So I think it’s the gold and the oil and gas rather than the drugs,” he said—less a thesis than a map.Then he landed on the line investors should tape above their screens: “Any politician that steps into the quicksand ends up sinking.” If today’s intervention is meant to be swift, bankable, and clean, Ecclestone’s view is the opposite: messy, contingent, and structurally unresolved. “Time will tell,” he said—and the clock, in his mind, is not measured in victory speeches, but in who actually governs Caracas “over the next week or two.”

China’s manipulation of the rare earths market isn’t a policy glitch — it’s a geopolitical weapon. In a wide-ranging discussion with InvestorNews host Tracy Hughes, Jack Lifton, Co-Chair of the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), portrayed 2026 as a year in which “more of the same” from Beijing will keep Western planners off balance, with China “playing us” through erratic export permissions that turn production planning in North America into “chaos.” Lifton’s blunt verdict on China’s tactics underscores a deeper truth: the world remains structurally dependent on Chinese control of rare earths and processing, even as that dominance becomes a tool in geopolitical competition rather than simple commerce.Lifton did not mince words on the broader strategic landscape either. On the question of Canada versus the United States in rare earth development, he highlighted a paradox: Canada “has the largest number of rare earth discoveries of any country in the world” and many “excellent” deposits, yet what these resources lack is “capital,” a gap that leaves Canadian projects more promising in geology than in execution. He quipped about his long tenure observing Washington policy, saying, “I’ve only been in this country for 85 years — I haven’t figured out how Washington works yet,” signaling a frustration with U.S. governmental inertia.His critique of Washington’s approach to rare earth policy was withering. Lifton characterized government investments as “a total waste,” arguing that policymakers “don’t understand the details of rare earth supply chains” and are naively “throwing money against the wall, predominantly at mining.” In his view, that focus misses the true chokepoint: downstream processing. “Separation, metals, alloys, magnet manufacturing — that’s where the problem is,” he said, warning that current initiatives are driven by superficial impressions rather than a grasp of complex technical and economic bottlenecks.On recycling — often touted as a strategic hedge — Lifton was equally skeptical. “Recycling only makes sense when the recycled product costs less than the new product,” he stated, contending that none of the ventures he’s reviewed meet that basic criterion. His dismissal highlights a broader theme of economic realism over policy wish-fulfillment that ran through the interview.Lifton also turned a critical eye toward international partnerships. He described U.S.–Australia collaboration as stuck in a “Mexican standoff,” noting that Australian projects with massive government backing — such as Iluka Resources Ltd.’s (ASX: ILU) magnet supply chain investment — wait for U.S. capital to step up before they proceed. Africa’s wealth of critical minerals, he observed, is undermined by instability, and in the Middle East he sees “money” but “no brains” for developing the needed infrastructure beyond oil and gas. He predicted that Brazil, though rich in resources, won’t be a meaningful supplier for “five to ten year window” given the pace of project development.Lifton’s assessment of various prospects was candid: Greenland’s rare earth aspirations are “a rare earth joke,” deep-sea mining could be a frontier to watch as Japan invests heavily in sediment extraction, and Russia’s magnet industry plans are unlikely to materialize because of systemic economic constraints.

Disclaimer: Video interviews and other video content published by InvestorNews are produced as part of paid media services. The issuer or company featured in this video has compensated InvestorNews for the creation and publication of such content. The views expressed in these interviews are those of the interviewees or guests and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of InvestorNews, its writers, or its affiliates. For full details, please refer to our complete disclaimer at www.investornews.com/disclaimer

Jack Lifton, Co-Chair of the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), settled into his chair with a frank verdict on 2025: “Was it a good year for rare earths or not? I don’t really think so, Tracy. I think there were too many choices presented to the public and a delusion, therefore, of well-focused capital in this segment.” Lifton’s measured skepticism contrasted sharply with the heady optimism that greeted rare earths at the start of the year, when critical minerals were being hailed as geopolitical currency and government spending surged. “Critical minerals are no longer a niche industrial concern — they’re the currency of geopolitical power,” wrote Hughes earlier in 2025. Yet Lifton — renowned for his deep expertise and razor-sharp analysis — was unmoved by the hype. “I don’t really think there were any surprises that we didn’t already have on our radar,” he reflected. “My thought about 2025 is this: we are now entering a period of Darwinian evolution in the rare earth permanent magnet space.” In his telling, markets not only correct but select: “Nature provides continuous variation of species … the survivors are naturally selected by the environment.”On that evolutionary note, he argued that much of the enormous policy and capital flurry amount to overcapacity. “Companies now on center stage for rare earths in North America have combined outputs of many many times this demand,” he said, pointing to an anticipated supply that far outstrips realistic market needs.At stake, he said, was the fate of the electric vehicle boom — long a poster child for rare earth demand. “I personally believe that the age of the EV in North America is basically over,” Lifton declared. “The EV will now be just another niche product … luxury products in the North American automotive industry usually are at 5 to 8% of the total.” Without the EV growth narrative, he added, magnet demand reverts to legacy applications — motors for appliances, displays, and established industrial uses.Lifton’s critique was not merely academic; it echoed broader 2025 trends. Washington and allied capitals shifted into industrial policy overdrive, deploying billions in subsidies and supply-chain support — from US$100 billion strategic minerals commitments to new processing incentives — yet real end-market demand for rare earth magnets remained murky. In Lifton’s view, the so-called rare earth resurgence of 2025 may ultimately be remembered not as a boom, but as a sorting process — where only the most resilient, efficient producers survive in a Darwinian marketplace increasingly divorced from easy geopolitical narratives. For more informatoin on the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) go tohttps://criticalmineralsinstitute.com/ or email us at [email protected]